Land Use / Kitchen Design Meeting

Peat's New Place in Cambridge MA

3 March 2007

 

Attendees: Bambi, Jim & Jay, Peat, Greg, Gingersnap, Pretty Urban, Shimmer, Chris & Dave.  

 

We met gathered around 2 PM and after getting the tour of Peat's great new home, we snacked and settled into the agenda. We started the meeting by going over the discussion from the last meeting held at Daisy's in Long Island City NY. Folks elaborated on some of that discussion, mostly relating to roofing materials and lots of back and forth about pouring the slab for the dining hall. We talked some more about a root cellar and water storage for gardens and fire prevention.

 

We guesstimated that the dining hall slab would cost roughly $8K.

 

We began talking about the budget and realized that we need to work on the details further. Things that did come up were the costs of the roofing material and windows. We'd planned to use salvaged windows but in discussions with the community it was felt that "good windows" were the way to go on the Kitchen / Dining Hall. The budget numbers are something Matt will work on before the Annual Mtg.

 

The schedule for the work weekends was next up. This is a rough outline of a schedule.

• April - June -- timber frame work.
  
• June - select more timbers from our approved area, cut then mill 
  
• Barn Raising (Fourth of July) -- roof and decking, we'll use a crane to place the beams in place.
  
• July - August
  

    strawbale work begins- placement of bales, plastering 

    interior plumbing and electrical concurrent with strawbale work

• August onwards - finish carpentry work

 

We then discussed our timber needs for the season, discussed needing a clear forest management plan for the rest of the land and looked at some of the issues involved in the state's Current Use program for non-profits doing conservation management of their forests.

 

We discussed road maintenance and felt that we had to do some basic graveling in some areas to bring up the grade. We realize that in the long run we will need to do improvements along the stretch of the road coming up the hill from the gate to where it levels off once we're on the Cronin parcel. 

 

It was felt that we didn't need a paid land steward this season, as a number of Land Use folks and others within the Destiny Circle plan on being on the land this summer. But it was felt that we needed a schedule of when folks plan on coming to the land so we know where we might have gaps in coverage.  

 

We discussed getting more information from our forester, Don Huffer as well as looking into a workshop to educate ourselves on forest management. Bambi will contact Don and the county forester about current use. Jim is looking into the workshop.

 

The issue of dealing with the old sweat lodge came up and it was decided to put it on the agenda for one of the early work weekends.  

 

We then discussed gardens and there was not a clear consensus about next steps other than continue to work on the terraced areas as people feel inclined. There was a feeling that the main goal for the summer would be the building projects but we also discussed wanted to clarify some of our goals around gardens. Bambi seemed to remember Endora being willing to donate funds to help enrich the soil in the terraced area. 

 

Some of these included:

• Gardening as a way of contributing to Destiny
• Small scale projects that would produce food for gatherings
• Landscaping the new meadow area
• Selecting plantings

 

We closed the meeting and launched into a frenzy of snacking and prepping for dinner.